ATM keypads covered in bacteria

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 16, 2016 -- You might want to
wash your hands the next time you withdraw cash from an ATM machine, a
new study suggests.

ATM keypads in New York City were covered in
bacteria, researchers reported, with most of the microbes coming from
human skin, food or household surfaces.

To come to this conclusion, the investigators
took swabs from the keypads of 66 ATM machines in Brooklyn, Manhattan
and Queens, including four that were outdoors.

The most abundant bacteria on the keypads were
normal human skin microbes. The most commonly identified sources of
bacteria were household surfaces, such as televisions, restrooms,
kitchens and pillows.

The researchers also found bacteria from bony
fish, mollusks and chicken, suggesting that bacteria from a meal can
remain on a person's hands and be transferred to ATM keypads.

Keypads on ATMs in laundromats and stores had
the highest number of bacteria, with the most prominent being lactic
acid bacteria, which is usually found in decomposing plants or milk
products.

ATM keyboards in Manhattan had a foodborne mold associated with spoiled baked goods, according to the study authors.

"It seems plausible that this fungus may have
been transferred from people who have recently handled baked goods,
particularly in a commuter-heavy area such as midtown Manhattan where
there are many nearby convenience stores and cafes selling this type of
food product to business workers," said study senior author Jane
Carlton. She is director of the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology
at New York University in New York City.

The report, published online Nov. 16 in the
journal mSphere, found no significant differences between keypads from
outdoor or indoor ATMs.

"Our results suggest that ATM keypads
integrate microbes from different sources, including the human
microbiome, foods, and potentially novel environmental organisms adapted
to air or surfaces," said Carlton.

"DNA obtained from ATM keypads may therefore
provide a record of both human behavior and environmental sources of
microbes," she said in a journal news release.